


Flight Plans

by almostjulie



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Drunken Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Sober Confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 20:30:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7772062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostjulie/pseuds/almostjulie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“There are five things,” said Poe, “that you should know about me.”</em>
</p><p>The progression of a relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flight Plans

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always appreciated!

“There are five things,” said Poe, “that you should know about me.” He and Finn were laying out under the stars on base. They had been out there since the sun dipped below the horizon, but, if asked, Finn probably wouldn’t have been able to recount what they had been discussing. He was too distracted by the warm cadence of Poe’s voice. 

Still, the last statement belatedly registered as something he should respond to. “Well?” prompted Finn, after the silence had stretched on so long that he thought maybe Poe had fallen asleep. 

“Oh. I’m not going to tell you now. That’d ruin the suspense.”

“We haven’t actually known each other very long.” It was a true statement, but it felt strange once Finn put it to words: there was the escape from the _Finalizer_ , their brief reunion before Starkiller, and then Finn had only woken up about ten days ago. “So I don’t really know _anything_ about you. If there’s something I need to know, for example, that you’re really the _worst_ pilot in the Resistance and I should never get near you and anything with an engine-”

“Hey!”

Finn smiled against the darkness. “I’m just saying.” 

“Just because we crashed that one time...” 

“It got the job done, that’s all that matters.”

“Damn straight.” 

They fell into an easy silence, but eventually, Finn’s back started to stiffen. The ground was hard and unyielding beneath them. He still had a long way to go in physical therapy.

“My back hurts.”

Poe rolled over on his side and looked at Finn, concern on his face. “You want to go back inside? It is getting pretty late.” 

Finn wished he hadn’t mentioned his back. “What is it that I need to know?”

“Nah, it can wait.” 

“It’s fine, let’s stay.” 

“You know, you’re probably the bravest person here, but you don’t have to be so strong _all_ the time.” 

"Is that the first thing?" Finn asked.

Poe laughed and Finn swore he could feel it right down the length of his scar and through his whole body. “No, buddy, that one’s about you.”

***

Finn leaned on Poe as they walked back inside. When they paused outside Finn’s door, Poe hesitated, then leaned in close. “I’m not as good a shot as you.”

“Is that--?”

“That’s one,” he said, as he walked away.

Finn stood in the hall and shouted after him, “I could have guessed that!” He watched Poe’s retreating back shake with laughter. 

*** 

They were at a party on in the rec room with Red and Blue Squadrons. A recon mission had turned south when some TIEs came out of nowhere, but they took down the ships, finished the mission, and aside from Snap spending a few hours in a bacta tank everyone had made it out without a scratch. Finn was playing a drinking game to which he didn’t quite know the rules, but he understood enough to know he and Jessika were losing badly. As they were getting ready to start another round and Finn’s head was spinning trying to think of excuses to back out, Poe came up and saved him, throwing an arm around his shoulder and pulling him away from the table.

Poe was giddy and unfocused, and his breath was hot in Finn’s ear. “Okay, so. Two. You ready?”

He steadied Poe when the other man stumbled, or maybe Finn stumbled and Poe steadied him. Finn wasn’t quite sure. “I’ve been waiting _weeks_ for two,” he said, grinning. They were good weeks: physical therapy was done, Finn was back to training with a ground unit, and he and Poe had been spending a lot of downtime together, easy companionship that Finn hadn’t realized he’d been missing his whole life. 

“I think you’re pretty when you smile.”

Finn stopped smiling. So did Poe. 

“And I am really drunk.” Poe couldn't look him in the eye. “That’s not three. Consider it a bonus.”

Finn wasn’t sure what to say. So he just said, “okay.” It felt wrong. Empty. He couldn’t tell if it was disappointment or just embarrassment in Poe’s face.

“Anyway, I’m gonna go check on Snap.” Finn didn’t see him the rest of the night. He lay awake in his bunk most of the night, replaying the conversation through his buzzed mind, trying to figure out what he should have said. When Poe sat next to him in the mess the next morning, he launched into a story about a time Karé had pranked the pilots with fake orders, and it was like the conversation the night before had never happened.

***

“When are you leaving?” 

“Um, just waiting on BB-8 to finish uploading all the data. Should take a couple hours. There’s _a lot_ of data,” Poe sighed as he stuffed a shirt into his go bag. He had that far away look he'd been getting for lately: nervousness tingled with hope. He was heading out for a diplomatic mission. Its success was important to the Resistance cause, but their contacts had been cooperative to date and it wasn’t expected to be too dangerous, so Finn wasn’t quite sure why Poe seemed so on edge.

Finn cleared a spot for himself on Poe’s bunk. “It looks like your closet threw up all over your room.”

Poe rolled his eyes and surveyed the space. “Thanks, mom. I think I’m done.” Poe shoved a pile of laundry across the bunk and sat down next to Finn. “So it’s probably a good time for number three.” He paused. “Or, actually, it might be a really, really bad time.”

“Go ahead.”

“I think I like you,” he said, and unlike that time at the party, Poe looked him in the eye.

Finn’s heart squeezed tight. “I may have noticed.”

“That’s... good?” Poe asked. There was that nervous and hopeful combination again. Maybe it wasn't the mission causing it, after all.

“Yeah, it’s good,” Finn replied, and Poe leaned in and kissed him. 

Finn reached for Poe’s neck and only after Poe groaned did he realize his other hand was inching up Poe’s thigh. Not that Poe was innocent; he had one hand slipped under his shirt, working its way up Finn’s chest. 

“Oh, kriff,” said Finn.

Poe’s hands stilled. “What?”

“I hope number five isn’t something sappy like ‘I love you.’”

Poe pulled back far enough to punch him in the arm. “Asshole.”

Finn just laughed and started working open Poe’s pants.

***

Finn woke up to Poe pacing the small space of the room in the dark. This happened sometimes: Poe waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. “You okay?” 

Poe stopped and sat down at the foot of the bunk. “Four. I’m scared.”

Finn got up, and knelt behind Poe, rubbing his shoulders and pressing kisses into his back. “Of?”

“That I’m not quick enough, strong enough, smart enough. Good enough.” 

Finn wrapped his arms around Poe. “You’re all those things. And even if you aren’t? It’s okay. Because you’re not alone.” _We’ll find a way through,_ Finn didn’t say, because he didn’t have to.

Finn could hear him take a deep, relieved breath. “Thanks, Finn.” 

***

The truth was, Finn had been expecting something big for number five. He had thought for a time that it _was_ going to be ‘I love you,’ and that he’d scared Poe off. But when he finally couldn’t take it anymore and told Poe he loved him, Poe said it right back, without hesitation, and enveloped him in a hug. 

There were rarely mornings when they got to sleep in. One or both of them was almost always on duty, and the longer Finn stayed with the Resistance the more responsibility he had, and it wasn’t always him waiting anxiously for Poe to get back from a mission; increasingly it was Poe waiting for him on the tarmac, launching himself enthusastically at Finn the second he got off his transport. So it was a rare luxury when Finn blinked awake just when he felt like it, not in response to an alarm, to find Poe still in bed with him. He traced patterns over Poe’s chest until the other man woke up, then asked, “Can I have five now?”

Poe contemplated the ceiling; Finn’s fingertips rested on his chest, felt the thrum of his heart under them. Finally, he said, “I spoil BB-8 way too much.”

“That’s it? _That’s_ five? For the record, you definitely do. It’s not every astromech on base that gets new parts every other week. And most of them power down in the hangar over night,” Finn said, looking across the room at BB-8 in his charging station. 

“What do you want? You already know everything about me.”

Finn thought about that then threw his arm over Poe. “Guess you’re right. Let’s go back to sleep.”

Poe hummed his approval and tucked in closer to Finn.

As he was drifting off, Finn said, “You know, you were right.”

“Of course I was,” Poe yawned.

Finn poked him in the stomach. “Cocky bastard.”

“About what?”

“I am a _way_ better shot than you.” 

Suddenly, Poe lunged and flipped Finn onto his back. “Oh, it is on,” he said, and kissed Finn, hard.


End file.
